The Lone Star Education Windfall

The US federal government has appropriated almost 8 million dollars
to settle the Texas debt and any expenses incurred with the recent
border treaty with Mexico... meaning paying for the Texas Rangers to
patrol the border. For reasons that are complex and difficult to explain
about 4 million dollars is left over or about 83 million dollars in
today's money. (Nothing to see here. Let's move on.) Texas spends that
money on government buildings and pet projects as one might expect. The
money is also distributed to counties which use the money to build
courthouses and such, but Texas does something that would be unexpected
in modern times. It sets aside half of the money for education:
community, religious, and even home schooling although they are called
"field schools" at this time. Students meet under a tree or in a one
room schoolhouse near the fields. There are no public schools as yet,
and the state cannot directly tax residents for education. (It's
illegal!) Communities organize their own schools and the state
reimburses them on a per student basis. Whatever Texas was spending per
student in 1854,
they almost double it in 1855. The teachers receive the lion's share of
the increase, and believe me, no teacher in Texas ever went hungry or
could not find a place to sleep. This is all to the state's credit, but
by 1860 the state will be deep in debt again. [1]

My Take by Alex ShruggedEven
though Horace Mann was experimenting with the Prussian unified system
of education, public schools didn't get rolling until after the War
Between the States otherwise known as the American Civil War which was
technically NOT a civil war but don't get me started on that one! The
point is that education in the United States at that time was uneven.
Ethnic groups within Texas had different educational priorities and each
made its own arrangements as they saw fit. No one was bellyaching about
how their kids were forced to learn something that didn't fit with
their world view or religious convictions because people with differing
views didn't mix. If they needed classes taught in German, Spanish or
Dutch, the parents paid for it and made it happen. It is a modern belief
(almost a religious conviction) that mixing cultures results in harmony
and understanding. I feel like I'm trapped in a West Side Story musical
and I don't how to dance! There are reasons why we self-separate. It is
because we prefer to interact with people who share a baseline
understanding with us. Getting along with people I already more-or-less
understand is hard enough, but the government wants me to get along with
people different than I am. Fine. I can do that. But if I don't want to
do that, I should be able to avoid it without the government telling me
I am bad. I'm not bad. I'm just tired.

Bleeding Kansas

The capitol of Kansas is Topeka, no... Lecompton... wait... it's Leavenworth... uh... how about Wyandotte (WHY-en-dot)?
Yeah. That's it! (Wyandotte is now part of Kansas City) Well... as you
can see the Kansas Territory residents are having problems making a
decision. They must decide whether to become a slave state or a free
state. The reason for their indecision is because of MASSIVE voter
fraud. The people of Missouri have been jumping the border and voting in
the Kansas elections. The majority of Kansans are voting to be a free
state but the number of fraudulent votes from Missouri is more than the
legitimate votes. This has caused the elections to be thrown to the
pro-slavery candidates. While the courts have called for a reelections
in a few districts it is not enough to offset the massive pro-slavery
win. Frankly, the Missouri "Ruffians" have become quite firm in their
convictions on slavery.... violently firm. To combat the pro-slavery
violence, Reverend Beecher has sent a shipment of Sharps Rifles to
Kansas. The shipping crates are labelled as "Beecher's Bibles" so the
rifles take on the same name. Reverend Beecher says that rifles are "a
greater moral agency than the Bible." (Please note that his sister is
Harriet BEECHER Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.) Over all, maybe 1,000 rifles will be shipped. By next year Kansas will be awash in blood. [2][3][4]

My Take by Alex ShruggedWell... the War Between the States didn't start until 1861,
yet in Kansas there was already blood in the streets. If people are
worried about a nationwide insurrection in modern times, it is going to
take a lot more that a few riots by disgruntled people before things
really get wild. FYI, the capital of Kansas is Topeka, but when Kansas
was a territory, Topeka was considered an insurrectionist government by
President Franklin Pierce because Topeka voted to be a free state.
Pierce wanted to hold the Union together, so he kissed the backsides of
the Southern slave owners and as a result, he sent the country spinning
toward destruction. But the headlong leap over the precipice could not
have been accomplished by one man alone. It took the help of the
legislature giving the country a good hard shove as well. It is easy to
say, "Why didn't they do what Abraham Lincoln did?" But Lincoln did not
have the Southern voting block cutting off his every effort to end
slavery or transition away from it. By the time the reality of war was
upon them it was already too late. Looking back, we can see their future
clearly. If only. If only. I wonder what our children's children will
say about our actions today. What are we missing that will be so obvious
to the generations to come? And will they shake their heads and ask why
we did nothing?

In Other News

Cocaine is isolated from coca leaves. Until now, European scientists could not get enough fresh leaves from South America to isolate the alkaloid. [5]

Florence Nightingale institutes good hygiene standards in military hospitals.
Although her "Lady with the Lamp" image of making the rounds at night
might have been exaggerated, she did professionalize nursing in the
years following the war. [6][7]

Rayon is patented. It is nicknamed "Mother-in-law silk" probably because this early version of the fabric caught fire easily. [6][8]